Abstract
We develop a theory of extrinsic spin currents in semiconductors, resulting from spin-orbit coupling at charged scatterers, which leads to skew-scattering and side-jump contributions to the spin-Hall conductivity. Applying the theory to bulk n-GaAs, without any free parameters, we find spin currents that are in reasonable agreement with experiments by Kato et al. [Science 306, 1910 (2004)].
Highlights
We develop a theory of extrinsic spin currents in semiconductors, resulting from spin-orbit coupling at charged scatterers, which leads to skew-scattering and side-jump contributions to the spin-Hall conductivity
Applying the theory to bulk n-GaAs, without any free parameters, we find spin currents that are in reasonable agreement with experiments by Kato et al [Science 306, 1910 (2004)]
Spin-orbit (SO) coupling is a mechanism for achieving this goal. It has the prominent consequence of the spin-Hall effect (SHE), where an electric current can induce a transverse spin current and nonequilibrium spin accumulation near sample boundaries
Summary
We develop a theory of extrinsic spin currents in semiconductors, resulting from spin-orbit coupling at charged scatterers, which leads to skew-scattering and side-jump contributions to the spin-Hall conductivity. Spin currents do not necessarily vanish in thermodynamic equilibrium, so their relation to spin transport and accumulation is not obvious [14] These problems inherent in the spin-transport theory make identification of physical mechanisms underlying the SHE observed in Refs. (This effect can occur even in an inversion symmetric crystal.) We show that scattering by charged impurities and SO interaction in n-GaAs are strong enough to support spin currents that are in reasonably good agreement with findings by Kato et al [1] without using any adjustable parameters
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